verlaine1979

Because there are reasons to watch and enjoy football that go beyond tribalism?

I doubt spurs expected to ship three at home to West Ham when they were at the time the equal best defence in the league. We're solid these days, but we'll still get tonked at least once this season, and away at OT is as likely a place as any.

Only Roma (conceded 1) have a better defensive record than us out of the top five European leagues.

Great subs today - JWP helped fox out a lot, and Jrod stopped the Swansea defence camping out on the half way at a time when they were absolutely rampant.

Tough game. I'd say on the face of it, Swansea have a couple more match winners in their XI than we do today.

So, lets assume for a moment that Gaston proves to be absolutely worthless, eventually leaving on a free (personally I think this very unlikely, and expect him to eventually prove himself an excellent player, but that's immaterial here), my question is - so what? We look a good solid mid-table team. We're not going to go down because of Gaston, just as we'd be unlikely to suddenly turn into CL contenders if he started playing well. Who really gives a crap what kind of player he turns out to be?

I think it's pretty obvious we paid a small-club premium when we bought Gaston. If one of the big Italians had come in for him then the gravity of their reputation would no doubt have depressed the price and he'd have gone for well under £10m. Considered in that light, I don't actually find his inconsistency that surprising, though obviously I do find it extremely frustrating during matches, but that goes for anyone who gives possession away sloppily.

I take your point about pace, but it's worth noting that Osvaldo is actually just under a year younger than Ronaldo, so I'm not sure his lack of a yard can be attributed to age just yet.

You can watch the nutjob link minus adds by going to http://cdn.tvs.re/stream23n.html (it's the embedded video frame)

Good grief :/ Are we under some kind of curse?

Is it me, or does Wanyama always seem to underhit his passes just a fraction?

Hardly, the idiot plays with wingers.

Considering there's been very little entertainment on offer in the first four games, a 0-0 doesn't sound particularly enjoyable. However, as a good away point it's probably not to be sniffed at. Without the drama of either trying to get promoted or avoid relegation, I find myself far more impatient when the games are of mediocre quality as they have been recently. Is this what mid-table comfort is like? If you could temporarily suspend the partisan emotion of the average Everton or Fulham fan mid-game, would most up and go home at half time out of boredom?

Should probably switch JWP for Wanyama & Gaston for either JRod or Lallana.

Cork is a very solid player who did a brilliant job last season shoring up our defence at a time when we were incredibly frail, however, we don't have that problem at the moment. As solid as Cork is, he adds almost nothing in an attacking sense as his passing is generally (understandably) tentative and focused on retention rather than chance creation. Bringing Cork back into the team is not the answer to the last two stuttering performances (Clyne and Shaw being fit and in the team is the answer, if you were wondering).

To be fair, a central pairing of Kondogbia & Pogba would be pretty immense.

Surely we don't really need to debate whether it is better for players to have pace than not? I'm trying, but can't really think of a great club side in the last 20 years or so where the main element of their attacking threat hasn't been the ability of one or more of their key forwards to run with the ball at speed. I've seen a few people say over the past few days that it isn't about the pace of the players, but the pace at which you move the ball. Unfortunately that isn't true - pretty much the entire Barcelona outfield are very good at quick passing and creating space, but when they don't have Messi running at the defence with the ball, committing opponents and creating opportunities for the overload, they can actually be quite dull and ineffective going forward.

What you're describing is basically Schroedinger's transfer window - until a player has proven himself he is simultaneously both the best player in a club's history and its worst (and all possible gradations inbetween).

If we had some eggs we could have ham and eggs, if we had some ham.

Absolutely, it's much easier to teach someone with natural pace when they should cut in than it is to teach someone who is slow how to run faster. Don't get me wrong, I think we look a decent, solid side (reminiscent of Everton during Moyes' early days) but solidity + slow build up rarely equals goals.

As the 'we don't play with wingers' dullards chorus every time we are linked with someone who plays from midfield with a modicum of pace, our game plan apparently relies on Shaw and Clyne using their undoubted speed to created overlaps and stretch the play. When neither of those players is on the pitch it would be nice to have someone (perhaps left or right of the AM three) with a bit of pace. We don't currently have anyone who fits that description (not even Puncheon was really that quick).

Cork is not the answer when the question is 'why is our build up play so ponderous?'

Yup, midfield definitely performed better second half. That's not to disparage Schneiderlin nor any other part of the midfield, but Wanyama & JWP did a great job. Seen a few people suggesting Cork used to carry the ball forward more than Wanyama is doing, but I don't see it myself. If Cork had one weakness last season it was his tentativeness in passing or driving forward.

Really encouraging performance from JWP. Not just the set pieces, but very good retention and seemed to look for (and more often than not complete) a forward pass before looking for a sideways ball.

Is it just me, is has JWP looked like the best player on the pitch by some distance all game?